SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran has instructed its Shia allies in Iraq to avoid provoking tensions with the United States that could give a Trump administration cause to launch attacks in the U.S. president’s final weeks in office, AP cited Iraqi officials as saying.
AP reported that the request was delivered by Iranian General Esmail Ghaani, head of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, to allies in Baghdad last week.
Ghaani had met with Iranian-backed Iraqi militia factions and Shia politicians in Baghdad, two senior Iraqi Shia politicians who attended the meetings in the Iraqi capital told AP.
The Iranian general said in the message, “Stand down to avoid giving Trump the opportunity to initiate a fresh tit-for-tat round of violence,” AP reported.
“And to the Iraqi Shiite paramilitaries: Be calm and cease attacks for now against American presence in Iraq,” AP quoted Ghaani as saying.
He further said if there was a U.S. aggression by Donald Trump administration, Iran’s response would “be in line with the type of strike,” one of the Iraqi politicians cited Ghaani as saying, AP said.
Another Iraqi government official also confirmed to AP Ghaani’s meetings with Iranian-backed factions in Iraq last week.
Despite Ghaani’s message, a barrage of Katyusha rockets was fired at the Iraqi capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone, landing a few meters from the U.S. Embassy. A few of the rockets that landed outside the Green Zone killed a child and wounded five civilians.
A militia group, Ashab al-Kahf, believed to have links with the powerful Kataib Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for the attack. Kataib Hezbollah denied it had carried out the barrage, and claimed the truce initiated in October was still in place.
An array of Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups announced in October that they have suspended rocket attacks on U.S. forces on condition that Iraq’s government present a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.
U.S. officials blame Iran-backed militia for regular rocket attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq, including near the embassy in Baghdad.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy to Iraq said Iranian-backed lawless militias continued to destabilize Iraq.
“Lawless militias supported by Iran’s Qods Force continue to destabilize Iraq, kill Iraqi citizens, and threaten Iraq’s sovereignty,” the embassy tweeted.
It called on the Iraqi government to arrest and hold accountable those who continue to perpetrate acts of violence against the Iraqi state.
